


Percy's Little Workshop of Horrors

by chiiyo86



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Childhood Memories, Fluff, Gen, Pre-Canon, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-03 09:48:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8707657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiiyo86/pseuds/chiiyo86
Summary: Percy's workshop is a place Cassandra has never been allowed to enter. What sort of wonders could be hiding in there?





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aworldinside](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aworldinside/gifts).



> I'm also always wishing for more Percy & Cassandra interactions, so have a short fluffy treat where they're kids. Hope you enjoy it!
> 
> My thanks to [labellementeuse](http://archiveofourown.org/users/labellementeuse) for her beta work. :)

The workshop of her brother Percival was a topic of immense curiosity for young Cassandra. She’d been explicitly forbidden to go inside, often and by multiple people. By Percy himself, of course—“Don’t go inside, or I’ll tell Mother that you’re the one who ruined her favorite dress”—but also by Mother—“It’s a dangerous place, Cassandra; you’ll only hurt yourself”— and even Father—“It is no place for a young lady.” Her brother Ludwig, always the adventurous spirit, had his own comment to make on the matter: “Eh, I’ve been in there and it’s boring, just a bunch of weird tools and nonsensical drawings.”

Anything they said only added to the fire of her inquisitiveness. It had to be a marvelous place, she reasoned, full of secrets and wonders, or else why would Percy spend so much time locked up there instead of playing hide-and-seek in the castle or exploring the mountains around Whitestone? 

“Percival sees a world that’s beyond our understanding,” her sister Vesper had told her. “He probably doesn’t feel ‘locked up’ in his workshop, but rather free.”

That hadn’t made much sense to Cassandra—how could one be free inside a small, closed room?—so she’d come to the conclusion that everyone was only barring her entrance to the place because she was always kept from anything fun. It was what it meant to be the baby of the family, but Cassandra was almost eight now, and she felt that she’d earned the right to know her brother’s secret.

She was presented with an opportunity one sunny summer day, as she was sent by her mother to tell Percy that lunch was served. She’d been expressly ordered to knock on the door and deliver her message through it, but as she approached she could hear a strange rumbling sound coming from the workshop. She tiptoed to the door and pressed her ear against it. It sounded like the breathing of a large creature that sometimes turned into a growl, and Cassandra’s heart started to beat faster: what kind of odd creature could Percy keep in the workshop? Could it be—a dragon? Or some demonic beast from the Nine Hells, such as the ones in the stories her brother Oliver told to scare her during long winter wakes? If no one ever stepped foot inside Percy’s workshop, then he could very well be keeping all kinds of fantastic beasts in it without anyone in the family being any the wiser.

Cassandra shifted her weight from one foot to the other. What should she do? Should she just leave Percy to his mysterious friend? But she’d been sent here on a mission, and she couldn’t go before she’d fulfilled it. Even if she’d decided to pretend that she hadn’t found Percy, her mother had the uncanny ability to see through all of her lies. 

Squaring her shoulders to give herself heart, Cassandra rapped her knuckles on the massive wooden door. Percy didn’t answer and the heavy breathing sound didn’t relent. Surely Cassandra couldn’t leave without making sure her brother had heard her—it was all too easy for Percy to forget to eat because he was absorbed in one thing or the other, and her mother already lamented the fact that he was only skin and bones. If he hadn’t heard her, then maybe she ought to check. The door was usually locked, but when Cassandra tried the handle she found that today, miracle of miracle, she could push it open. It had to be a sign that Pelor himself favored her endeavor! Her hands sweating, and her heart thundering from a mix of fearful anticipation and excitement, Cassandra slipped into her brother’s forbidden lair. 

Inside the room there reigned darkness, and it took Cassandra’s eyes a moment to get used to the feeble lightening. It was very hot, too, and soon enough she was sweating buckets for reasons other than excitement and fear. By the entrance was a simple wooden desk covered in papers, drawings that had too many lines and were sprinkled with numbers and webs of arrows. Cassandra took a few more steps and found a table with pieces of metal and shreds of leather. There was another growl and she startled; the only source of light came from the fireplace at the far end of the room, and, heart in her throat, she turned her head in its direction. Someone stood hunched over the fire, their shadow dancing around with the flames, and when they turned Cassandra screamed, for they had no face and only one big rectangle eye. They held something shiny in their hand and when they angled toward her, they said her name in a hollow, distorted voice:

“Cassandra? What—”

Cassandra didn’t waste time turning on her heels and running away as fast as her legs could carry her. She ran down the stairs and the corridors, and didn’t stop before she was in her room. She wedged herself in the space between her bed and her commode and curled into as small a ball as she could manage, wrapping her arms around her knees and tucking her head against her chest. She stayed there for a long, long while, trembling like a leaf in the wind. 

Footsteps echoed in close proximity and she squeaked. “Don’t eat me!”

Instead of a growling monster, it was Percy’s bemused voice that answered her. “Cassandra? What’re you doing hiding down here?”

She risked casting a glance over her knees, and indeed there was only her brother, blinking owlishly behind his glasses, his brown hair tousled and a dark smudge marring his cheek. 

“Percy?” she said in a small voice. She tried to look past him to check if he’d been followed. “Is the monster with you?”

Percy frowned, the crease between his eyebrows marking his impatience with her antics. “What’re you talking about? What monster? And what were you doing in my workshop, you little imp?”

“Mother sent me to tell you it was time for lunch, and—and—”

Without even really knowing why, she burst into tears. Fat hot tears ran down her face and she wiped them hurriedly to avoid wetting her dress and making Mother mad, but she couldn’t stop the sobs racking her chest and the tremors running through her body.

“Whoa, what’s—I didn’t even yell at you!” Percy exclaimed, hands fluttering in front of him. “Come on, Cassandra, stop this—Mother will lecture me for making you cry. Cass, please. I’m not mad. Please look at me.”

Cassandra looked, but she couldn’t see him very well through her tears. He did seem more puzzled than angry, and there was no trace of the monster she’d seen in the workshop, so progressively she managed to quiet her sobbing down to soft hiccups. 

Percy shuffled closer to her on his knees. “What’s that monster you talked about?”

“In your workshop, by the fire—it had no face and one rectangle eye and—” Percy started laughing and it sparked such an indignation in Cassandra that she didn’t feel like crying anymore. “It’s true! I saw it! Stop laughing at me!”

“You saw _me_ , silly goose. I was wearing a mask to protect my face from the fire. Well, that’ll teach you to go into my workshop when I’d _told_ you you shouldn’t. Why can’t you ever listen?”

Remembering her brother’s warning, Cassandra chewed on her lip uncertainly. “You’re not going to tell Mother about her dress, are you?”

Percy hummed as though he were thinking about it, but then reached out and ruffled her hair. “Come on, stand up and let’s get you cleaned up before we go for lunch.”

He held out his hand; Cassandra took it to haul herself up, and then didn’t let go. For once Percy didn’t try to shake her off, and Cassandra followed him to the washstand in quiet happiness at the thought that she’d managed to snatch her elusive brother for herself, even if it was just for a moment.

“You really thought I was a monster?” Percy asked as he washed her face with water and a clean rag.

“I heard a weird noise, like a monster breathing heavily!”

Percy laughed again. “It was the bellows, stupid.”

“I’m not stupid!”

“Yes, you are.”

“Am not.”

They kept bickering all the way to the dining room, and got a scolding from Mother for being late. After that day, Cassandra didn’t try to get into Percy’s workshop for a very long time.


End file.
